A Marauder World
by booksaredrugs
Summary: A story of Lily and the Marauder's years at Hogwarts, and she and James fell in love.
1. Chapter 1

There were only a few days left before summer break ended. Lily was dreading going back to school, not that she was a bad student or anything. She'd been getting straight A's for as long as she could remember, but was quickly losing interest in the subject material. This was quite unfortunate for her, since she was only 11 years old and had many years of required education ahead of her.

She wasn't particularly having a good summer either. There were no girls her age that lived nearby. In fact, the only people her age were that annoying Potter kid and the greasy haired Snape kid. Both of them had always struck her as odd, like they were hiding something. To make it even worse, Potter was always pranking her. And not even fun little pranks, he took things way too far. All summer she'd been trying to cook up a prank worthy of revenge

She stared at the window, waiting for something interesting to happen. She had wanted to go to the movies with her friends from school, but the nearest theater was half an hour away and her parents didn't have time to drive her around. Angry thoughts swirled in her head, directed at her parents for being busy and her friends who hadn't offered her a ride.

A sudden BANG snapped her out of her dark thoughts. Lily opened the window as quickly as possible, hoping whatever poor bird that hit it was still alive. A brown ball of feathers tumbled through her window.

How peculiar, she thought. Upon examination, the ball of feathers turned out to be a barn owl. A letter fell to the ground and the owl left more abruptly than it had come.

What on earth is a Hogwarts? This has got to be his dumbest prank this summer she thought, not believing for a second that there was some sort of school dedicated to training young wizards, or that she was invited there. Wonder how he trained the owl, she pondered.

"Lily, your father, Petunia, and I are going to the opera. Your aunt is busy so you'll be staying at the Potters. Bring your toothbrush, you might be sleeping over." She heard her mom shout.

Lily sprinted downstairs. "Mom you can't do this to me! I'm old enough to stay by myself!" She cried, stamping her foot.

"Honey I think this little outburst is proof enough that you're still a child," her mom replied. "Besides," she continued, "James is a very nice boy. I don't see why you need us to drive you halfway across town when there's a boy your age right across the street."

Lily had nothing to say to this. Obviously, if her mom thought James Potter was a nice boy then she was beyond reason. Oh well, Lily thought, at least she'd be able to ask him about the letter. She shoved it in her pocket, bid her parents goodbye, and made her way across the street to Potter's house.

"Hello Lily-Flower (Lily rolled her eyes at this)," James greeted her. "Come right in."

"Is this your idea of a joke, Potter?" she questioned, skipping the formalities and shoving the stupid letter in his face.

The mocking grin slid off his face leaving an expression of complete shock. "L-L-L-Lily you're a wizard too?" he stammered.

"Ha ha very funny Potter."

"MOM GET DOWN HERE, I THINK LILY IS A WIZARD!" he yelled.

His mom appeared with a loud SNAP.

Whoa, that was cool, Lily thought. Actually wait that's impossible.

"Oh hello Lily." Mrs. Potter said, giving Lily a hug. "This might shock you quite a bit but you are a witch. We've had our suspicions for a while now."

Lily stared at her for a few seconds before falling unconscious.

"Oh dear, she must have fainted from the shock. I don't blame her, poor girl. James could you put her on the couch until she wakes up."

* * *

Lily was still out cold on the sofa, and James was talking to himself about the terrible things he could do to wake her up.

"I could douse her with ice cold water or I could stick my armpit under her nose, or maybe I need to give her a kiss-"

"I'M AWAKE." Lily screamed.

" He he he. Ok, tomorrow we're gonna take you to Diagon Alley so you can exchange your money and get supplies," James told her. He had a big stupid smile on his face.

"So this isn't some dumb prank?" Lily asked.

"No, but if it were it would be the best prank ever. Oh and did I ever tell you you're really heavy-"

"POTTER"

"OUCH"

The rest of her stay at the Potter's consisted of a monkey, a house elf, and a lot of whipped cream. With the occasional bucket of water here and there.

* * *

****

The Potter's doorbell rang. Lily raced to answer it, hoping it was her parents. She didn't even let them greet her before exclaiming, "Mom, Dad, guess what! I'm a witch! There's this school called Hogwarts and I can do magic and and-"

"We know sweetie, a funny man named Albus Dumbledore stopped by a few days ago when you were out shopping. He's the headmaster of your school, and he explained everything. We have your train ticket too. Here, you hold on to it." her mom told her.

Lily was too excited about being a witch to care that her parents had kept this from her for days. Besides, she probably wouldn't have believed them anyway. It was a bit disappointing that her new wizarding school didn't have a more interesting form of transportation. Why ride a train when you have magic carpets? She checked the ticket for details.

Hmm, there's no such thing as platform 9 and 3 quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily was beginning to panic. Her parents had dropped her off at King's Cross with hugs, tears, and apologies about not being able to see her all the way to the platform. She figured that it couldn't be that hard, since there must be hundreds of students headed to the same platform as she was, but after twenty minutes of increasingly frantic wandering, she grew nervous.

Luckily, at quarter to eleven a taxi pulled depositing James and Severus at the station. As much as she and Potter had messed with each other over the summer, it was nothing compared to the way he treated Snape. After Lily had received her letter, Severus had paid her a visit and confessed that he was also a soon to be Hogwarts student.

The boys were clearly distressed at having to share transportation, and stormed off in opposite directions as soon as they had paid the taxi. Severus was the one who actually sorted through the Muggle money, and gave it to the driver, since James was surprisingly ignorant about Muggle ways, despite living in a Muggle neighborhood.

Feeling a bit ashamed at her shallowness, Lily chased after James and begged him to take her to the platform. Even though she mostly hated him, she had to admit it would be better to be seen with him than Severus.

"Oh you need something from me, Evans?" James taunted, "Interesting. Very Interesting." He continued, pacing smugly back and forth, "I'm sure we could arrange something perhaps-" James was too busy gloating to notice a very angry Lily Evans walking up to him and kicking him in an extremely private area.

"Oww, what was that for?"

"Hey Lily, I can show you the platform." Lily and James hadn't realized that Severus was so close by. Since James was clearly not going to be helpful, she made to follow Severus, oblivious to the smug look he shot at James as soon as Lily looked away.

"Actually I was about to show Evans the way to the train," Potter said coolly. Without further ado, he grabbed Lily's arm, and dragged her through a brick wall. Lily blinked several times, unsure of what had just happened. She glanced at Potter, a question in her eyes. "An enchanted wall," he explained, "would be bad for Muggles to stumble across the Hogwart's Express.

The platform was frantic with the last few stragglers hurrying to get their luggage on the train before it departed at eleven o' clock sharp. With the help of an older student with a badge pinned to his chest, Lily was able to get her trunk on-board.

The boys dashed off to find compartments, while Lily thanked the older student for his help. She glanced in the compartments she passed, looking for one that was either empty, or at least had kids her age.

When she had almost reached the end of the train, she was surprised to here two voices say...

"Hey Lily I found a compartment!"

She looked at the two different compartments in question. The one Snape had found had a few older kids with a mean look about them. Potter had found a compartment with three boys who looked around Lily and James's age. The one closest to the door was short and a bit pudgy, with watery blue eyes. Next to him was a tired looking boy with sandy hair. Across from them was a rather attractive boy with long black hair, and a mischievous expression that reminded her of Potter. Well. If Potter was extremely good looking.

She had no particular desire to join either compartment, so she compromised by declining them both, and continuing her search for a spot. It would be extremely embarrassing if she couldn't find anything and ended up having to join Potter or Snape. Ignoring James's cry of "Hey Lily wait!" she walked away.

Fortunately for James's safety, she was well out of earshot when he explained to the other boys in his compartment that she was his girlfriend, and wanted to make friends with some girls instead of spending time with him. That had stopped the boys from laughing at him, but put him in a bit of a tricky situation.

Unaware of the predicament that James had landed himself in, Lily was experiencing her own good fortune. She finally found a near empty compartment occupied only by a small girl with white-blond hair.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked hopefully.

"Not at all," the girl replied, gesturing encouragingly to the seat across from her. "My name is Rebecca by the way."

Lily returned the greeting, and observed that the girl was already wearing her school robes. "Aren't you worried the Muggles will see those?" She asked, glad she remembered the term for the non magical people that she used to count herself among.

"Oh my parents apparated me and my things to the platform. They don't really believe in interacting with the Muggles," Rebecca said with a shrug.

Lily felt her relief at having finally found a place to sit start to ebb. What if her new friend, if she could even call her that yet, was one of those elitist wizards who looked down on Muggle-borns? Her thoughts were cut short when she heard a bell ring in the hallway, accompanied by a shout of,

"Food Trolley!"

"Ooh I'm going to get some chocolate frogs," Rebecca said, dashing out into the hallway, leaving Lily to wonder what on earth that was, and why anyone would want to eat one.

"You know they aren't actually frogs, Evans. Here take this." All of the sudden a packaged dropped onto Lily's lap, and Jame Potter appeared out of nowhere, holding a silvery length of cloth. "Look remember that favor you owe me from before? I could really use-" He stopped mid-sentence, and vanished again, throwing the cloth over himself.

Seconds later Rebecca was back and complained about the cart being all out of chocolate frogs.

"What's that in your lap?" she asked, gesturing to the package that James had left.

"Oh...," Lily began, opening the package and checking its contents. "Yeah I packed some stuff from home in case the trolley was out. Here, take some." She thrust the bag full of unfamiliar wizard candy at Rebecca, hoping she wasn't behaving too strangely, and painfully aware that her lie gave the impressive she was from a family of wizards.

They talked for a while, munching on the treats, until a loud knock startled them both. Without waiting for a response, the door slid open, revealing Potter and his new friends.

"Oh hey there Lily. How is my fine flower on this fine day?" James rambled, with a strange pleading expression on his face.

The handsome black haired boy bounded in, eager to observe the situation. His eyes switched from James to Lily, as if watching a particularly exciting tennis match.

Unsure of what exactly Potter was trying to accomplish, Lily narrowed her gaze and threatened another kick if he didn't leave her alone.

The black haired boy burst into laughter, and offered Lily his hand. "My name is Sirius, thank you so much for settling that bet." He ran laughing after a very dejected James Potter, taunting him all the way.

The other two boys hung awkwardly in the hallway for a bit, before quickly introducing themselves, and following their friends back to their compartment.

"James you owe me a Sickle"

"Do not!"

"You said that redhead was your girlfriend!"

"Yeah well you said you could pick up her friend."

"That was before I realized she was from the Spinks family, pretty sure we're related or something."

They bickered for a bit about who owed who money, before Remus interjected, and pointed out that they both "failed their tasks" so to speak.

The four boys passed the rest of the train ride playing a lively game of Exploding Snap, and talking about all the legendary pranks they would perform when they got there.

* * *

"Oi, firs years o'er here. Firs year this way," A boy shouted. He didn't look much older that the students, but he towered over everyone like a giant. "All right, four to a boat"

Lily grabbed onto her new friend, not wanting to get separated. They found a boat that was empty except for Sirius, and started to climb in.

"Hey this isn't some girls club. JAMES. JAMES GET OVER HERE," Sirius yelled, indignant about being joined by the girls when he had been trying to find a boat for the four boys to sit in.

James ran over, and jumped in the boat just as it began to pull away from shore. His enthusiastic entrance capsized the boat, dumping its former occupants into the freezing cold lake.

Lily seemed to be the only one among them who could swim properly. She swam over to the first flailing pair of arms she saw, determined not to let her first new friend drown. To her displeasure, she had only rescued Potter. Before she could take him back to the boat, something slimy and wet wrapped around her waist.

"Merlin I think the Giant Squid's got us!" James shouted.

Knowing the name of the creature who was about to kill her was somehow not reassuring to Lily. They were dragged under water, and pulled away, probably headed to the squid's secret lair or something.

Just as Lily though she was going to pass out, she was flung above water, landing painfully on some grass. Her friends were likewise afflicted, all panting desperately and grateful to be alive.

"Potter... you are... such ... a moron," Lily panted, when she had regained her breath.

"Oh come on, you have to admit that was pretty awesome. Besides, our shortcut got us here faster than everyone, even the older kids," James retorted.

Sirius grinned. "This seems like an excellent time to explore the castle eh James?"

"Yeah, Let's go mate!" James agreed, and the boys ran off.

"Hey wait up. You are NOT leaving us here!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Wait up!" Lily yelled, as the boys sprinted off towards the castle. She attempted a drying spell that had been mentioned in one of her textbooks, and succeeded in changing her robes from dripping wet to extremely damp. Obviously she needed to practice that one. Without further ado, she ran after the boys, Rebecca at her heels.

When they reached the castle they noticed a strict looking woman in her late 30's or early 40's. Getting on her bad side did not seem like a wise idea. Suddenly James stopped and whipped the shimmering length of cloth that he had had on the train out of his robes .

Sirius and Rebecca grinned excitedly when they saw the strange object. Lily stared at it curiously, suspecting it had something to do with the way that James had been able to appear and disappear, but reluctant to believe a piece of cloth could be that powerful. Her pondering was cut unceremoniously short as Rebecca dragged her closer to the boys, and James through the cloak over them all.

Noticing Lily's skeptical expression, James hissed, "We're invisible."

She doubted him, until they managed to creep past the stern woman unnoticed. Lily supposed that this must be a rare magical artifact, as it nothing like it had been mentioned in any of her school books.

After climbing a staircase and turning into an empty corridor, the coast was clear to take off the cloak, which was very cramped for four people, as small as they were. As they walked down the corridor, the empty suits of armor saluted them. Lily was so fascinated by the talking portraits on the wall that she absentmindedly wander up the next staircase, wanting to see them all.

This proved to be a bad idea for two reasons. One, the staircase started to move of its own accord, and two, her feet were stuck in one of the stairs. When the others saw her predicament they leaped onto the stairs before they were out of reach. Well at least Sirius and Rebecca managed to. James on the other hand was the last to jump and almost missed entirely. He clung to the railing for dear life, which was a difficult task with the staircase's movement.

Rebecca struggled to pull Lily out of her staircase prison, only managing to slow her descent, while Sirius hauled James over the railing with relative ease. Lily was waist deep in the stair by the time James and Sirius finished high fiving each other.

"Help!" She hissed, softly but menacingly. Rebecca was badly losing the bizarre game of tug-of-war she was playing with the staircase, and Lily had no desire to suffocate in a staircase at the age of eleven. James and Sirius came to her rescue, and with the combined effort of the three of them, Lily was soon free.

At this point, Lily wanted nothing more than to end this little adventure and catch up with the other students, but they needed to find different way back to the entrance hall, since the staircase didn't seem like it was moving back anytime soon. It probably would have been wiser just to wait, but between the four children their was little patience to be found.

The only option ahead of them was to climb yet another staircase, and as soon as they they reached the landing their staircase swiveled away. The other end of the corridor similarly lacked an available stair, so they opened a door and set off down a random hallway, which was a dead end.

Growing frustrated, Sirius began rapidly pacing back and forth. Muttering to himself about all the food their classmates were probable eating at the moment. James went over to clap him on the shoulder reassuringly, but stopped in his tracks as he saw a door appear in front of his eyes. Sirius saw only the potatoes and pork chops that he wanted to be eating, and crashed into James, knocking them both to the ground.

Lily stepped over the pile of boy on the floor, and entered the mysterious room. The smell inside was incredible, like every delicious food one could possible imagine. She looked around for the source, and saw only a table with four large pieces of parchment. They were all blank. She picked one up and a map of the castle appeared before her eyes. The others caught up to her, and each picked up their own paper.

James quickly tucked his into his pocket, while Sirius and Rebecca started with confusion at the blank papers they each held. Lily's map had a dot that said, "You are here," at about the middle of the castle. She found that helpful, and wished that the map would show them where they needed to go. She gasped as another dot appeared, marked simply with "Destination." She only had to wonder what route to take as a line emerged, showing them exactly where they needed to go.

"Let's go!" She exclaimed, eager to taste the food, after smelling how delicious it would be.

By the time they made it down to the Great Hall, the sorting was over and the feast had started. All heads turned their way as they burst through the door, hoping they wouldn't be expelled for their tardiness.

"It seems we have found our missing first years." Dumbledore announced, patting the arm of a tear-stained Hagrid. "I believe some of us owe the Giant Squid an apology. Ah, you four must be sorted now. Who's first? Don't all volunteer at once now! Miss Evans, would you be as kind as to step up here?"

Lily walked over to the stool feeling numb. The frustrating yet exciting trip around the castle made her forget to be nervous for the Sorting. She became so afraid that she started to wonder if her black robes would conceal it if she wet her pants. After was felt like eons, she was sitting on the stool. An old hat was draped over her head, and covered her eyes. 'Hmm,' a voice said in her head. 'This one is a bit difficult, brainy yet brave. Hmm. Ah yes, there seems to be one clear choice, welcome to' "GRYFFINDOR" the hat said, shouting the last word for the entire hall to hear. She walked over to the Gryffindor table with a relieved sigh. It appeared full at first, but she noticed a section with about four empty seats, and sat down next to a girl who looked her age.

"Hullo! I'm Alice!" the girl said cheerfully.

"Hey I'm Frank," the boy across from Alice said, reaching over the table to shake Lily's hand. "Welcome to Gryffindor."

"Are you both first years?" Lily asked.

The girl nodded while Frank shook his head. They both seemed like nice year people, this was going to be a fu- "GRYFFINDOR" the loud shout interrupted Lily's thoughts. This was met by many boo's from the Slytherin table, and she was joined at the table by a pale Sirius. She realized that the hat had been deciding for the minutes she had spent talking to Frank and Alice.

"You OK?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, fine I guess. Why aren't you eating?" he asked.

"Because its rude to eat while others are still standing, Rebecca and Ja-"

"GRYFFINDOR"

"Ok FINE then, Rebecca is still stan-"

"RAVENCLAW"

"Now I can eat in peace," Lily mumbled as she watched Rebecca join a cheering table. She looked at the empty seat on the other side of her, wishing her new friend was with her.

"Hey where did that Remus bloke go?" James asked.

Frank replied, "After he was sorted he went to Madam Pomfrey. He was a Gryffindor though, and so is some kid named Pettigrew."

The feast seemed to end too quickly. All too soon, a prefect named Arthur Weasley called for the first years.

"I'm going to show you the most direct route to the Gryffindor common room." he said. "Why were you guys late? Hagrid was moaning something about the Giant Squid."

"SOMEONE decided it would be funny to jump into the boat," Lily answered glaring at James, "the boat tipped and we ended up in the water."

"Then the Giant squid took us across the lake REALLY fast!" Sirius added.

"And when we were in the castle Evans got stuck in a stair." James sniggered.

And then Sirius added, "and we almost didn't find our way until we discovered-"

"That we could smell our way to the feast." James lied. Lily understood his motives, she wasn't ready to share their discovery either.

"What a tale! Anyway, here we are. The password is 'Chaser' Girls dormitory is on the left, Boys on the right."

Lily staggered up the stairs with Alice and the other first year girls, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

A/N Reviews? PLEASE?

Also this chapter used to be first person, but I decided to stick with third, apologies if I missed any I, me's, or we's


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Same deal as last chapter, used to be first person but edited to third, hopefully no errors.**

Lily woke to Alice tapping her shoulder. The watch on her nightstand read 7:25. She had set her alarm for 8, since their first class wasn't until 9. It was Charms with the Ravenclaws, and Lily was excited to be able to see Rebecca again. Alice told her that she wanted to get all the first years together for breakfast to get to know each other. It was a nice idea, or would have been if Lily had any interest in knowing more about the stupid boys in their year.

Alice had just finished waking up the girl in the bed next to Lily's, who introduced herself as Mary MacDonald. Right. Of course. There were people in their year other than the stupid boys. The three of them stared at the fourth occupied bed in the room. Unlike the rest of them, she had drawn her curtains. Lily couldn't remember meeting her at the feast, but recalled a tall girl with straight brown hair who had walked with them to the common room.

Mary offered to wake her up, since she was the only one who had met her the night before. With more than a little grumbling, the girl was awake. Lily closed her curtains under the pretense of wanting privacy while she changed. After quickly throwing on her robes, she pulled out her map from where she had hidden it under the mattress. She reviewed the route to the Great Hall, since they wouldn't have a prefect with them this time.

When she emerged, Alice and Mary had gone, leaving her alone with the tall girl.

"They went to go wake up the boys," she told Lily, pulling on a sock. "I'm Anne. That was quite an entrance you made last night. Lily, right?"

"Yup," she replied. "Thanks I guess. Want to get going? Hope they don't leave without us."

They went down to the common room, where all the other first years were gathered. Whoops. Lily was embarrassed to see everyone waiting one them. Apparently that was not the case, as one of the boys hadn't showed up either.

"C'mon can we leave yet?" James asked. "Who even likes that kid anyway?"

The boy on the staircase turned bright red, and waited a few seconds before continuing down the stairs. James hadn't noticed that the boy was in earshot, and continued chatting to Sirius about Quidditch, oblivious to the hurt he caused.

"Alright! We're all gathered. How about we go down to the Great Hall and get some food together?" Alice suggested.

James and Sirius led the way, pulling open the portrait-door-thing, and walking out onto the landing. They each started down a different hallway, and turned to stare at each other, confused.

Lily rolled her eyes as they argued good naturedly about which way to go. "You're both wrong. We have to wait here for the staircase." Lily informed them, feeling superior.

"Seriously how do you not remember there being stairs directly across from the common room?" Anne remarked, glaring at James.

This made Lily a bit guilty for the condescending tone she had taken. She probably wouldn't have remembered without checking her magical map. Maybe she shouldn't have been so rude to the boys. They made it to the Great Hall with no further arguments, letting Anne lead the way. Whatever tension the group might have felt dissolved when they saw the plates full of food. Their group sat on the end of the table closest to the door, and exchanged biographical information.

James and Sirius already seemed completely comfortable with each other. The other two boys were a bit quieter, but Remus cut in with an amusing comment every so often, making James and Sirius crack up. The fourth, Peter hardly said anything at all, and shot angry looks at James when he wasn't paying attention. Alice kept trying to include Peter in the conversation, but he wasn't giving her much to work with. Giving up, she chatted with Lily instead, who was glad to have found a friend in her own house.

The older kids trickled in as it got later, and the first years were soon joined by Frank, the boy who Lily had seen with Alice the night before.

"I see you took my advice," Frank said, grinning at Alice.

"Well it was a good idea. I mean this is our new family right?" she turned to Lily and explained, "Frank is a third year and our parents are friends. He told me all about Hogwarts. When he was a first year, they had a really great prefect who organized all these activities. Arthur is a decent bloke, but he has a reputation for being a bit absentminded, so Frank suggested that we do it ourselves."

Lily smiled. Alice was a really nice girl, with a big heart. Anne and Mary were nice enough, but only Rebecca and Alice had been friendly to her. Well. Technically Potter had been acting like they were friends, but she was sure that it was only a matter of time before she woke up covered in shaving cream, or something equally as vile.

They waited for Arthur to come over and take them to their first class, but he was busy talking to a redheaded girl. Frank tells us that Arthur had a thing for this girl named Molly in Frank's year. Since Arthur was otherwise occupied, Frank walked everyone to the Charms classroom. The Ravenclaws were already there, and Lily was glad to see that Rebecca had saved a seat next to her. Luckily there was room for two, and Lily went over to join her, bringing Alice with her.

The professor bustled in, and called for everyone's attention. He was a funny little man who has to stand on a pile of books for everyone to see him. Magical chalk moving on its own accord wrote the name Professor Flitwick on the board. He lectured them for half an hour on the correct way to hold a wand, and the different motions that one can use. After what seemed like forever, Flitwick distributed a box full of feathers, giving one to every student. He told them to look up the levitating charm in their textbook, and pronounced the incantation very carefully for them so there would be no confusion.

Apparently the spell used a combination of a swish with an upward flick.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Lily muttered, swishing and flicking. To her surprise, the feather moved, the front end rising a few inches off the table. Looking around she checked the other first years' progress. She was surprised to see that few people were even doing the correct wand movement. Apparently everyone was too excited to try real magic to bother checking the textbook. James kept performing a slashing movement, saying the words over and over. Instead of levitating, his feather somehow turned into a stick of butter. He and Sirius shared a laugh, and he shot Lily a wink when he noticed she was watching. Git.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Lily said with confidence, and concentrated on her wand movement. Her feather shot two feet in the air. She played with it a bit, watching it respond to where she pointed her wand, until Flitwick noticed. He awarded Gryffindor two points, and told the class that anyone else who managed it by the end of class would earn their house a point.

James stared at her incredulously, and she gave him the same conceited wink he had given her earlier. Instead of turning away angrily like Lily had, he turned pink and started prodding his stick of butter with his wand.

What a strange kid.

**A/N Review! **


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of Charms was a disaster. An overly enthusiastic Ravenclaw managed to quite literally set the room on fire, and despite Professor Flitwick's quick reaction, a couple of students had to go to the Hospital Wing to get their burns treated. The class wasn't sure whether the fire-starter was a genius or an idiot.

"My mum is from a long line of Ravenclaws; lot of powerful wizards there. Apparently Dad is a descendant of Uric the Oddball," The boy, who had the unfortunate name of Fergus, said by way of explanation.

James and Sirius were impressed, and vowed to learn spells for fire-starting. As the students filed out of the classroom, Flitwick muttered to himself about how he was never going to let first years attempt magic on the first day of school again.

Arthur Weasley showed up to lead the Gryffindors to their Transfiguration class, with an apology for losing track of time at breakfast. He was instantly forgiven, and the first year boys told him all about their exciting first lesson. Even Peter came out of his shell a bit, describing the flames, and how the room smelled faintly of popcorn from James's melting butter.

"Oh come off it, there's no way you could smell anything other than smoke in there," James contested, giving Peter a light punch on the arm.

Peter laughed, and pretended to try to trip James for revenge.

"Boys," Alice said, rolling her eyes. Lily nodded in agreement, and the pair walked down the hallway with smiles on their faces.

This class the Gryffindors had by themselves. They listened with glazed eyes about how transfiguration was a very serious branch of magic, and how they were not too fool around. Lily found herself feeling nervous, despite the fact that she had done nothing wrong. Professor McGonagall was not to be trifled with.

McGonagall described the precise wand motion and incantation that they would use for their first spell. She assigned pairs, and gave each student a match, promising a reward to the first student to successfully turn it into a needle.

Lily was paired with Sirius, who beckoned for her to join him, unwilling to move from his spot. She began practicing the spell, while Sirius sorted through his chocolate frog cards, looking for the one that James had requested. After only succeeding to turn the match silver, Lily grew frustrated and started lecturing Sirius.

Instead of arguing back, Sirius simply performed the spell, and raised his eyebrows at Lily. She picked up his match, and observed with surprise that it was a match no longer. It wasn't quite a needle, as its edges were rounded instead of pointy, but it had changed from wood to metal, and Lily was impressed. Annoyance forgotten, she complimented him, and asked for his advice.

Hearing Lily's praise, James looked up from his cards and picked up his match. After staring at it from every angle, he returned it to the table and executed the spell. Peter, who'd been partnered with James stared at the object in shock. It was a proper needle, thin and pointy.

"Well done Mr. Potter!" Mcgonagall complimented, "That's an advanced transformation for the first day of class." She awarded James 3 points, and gave 2 to Sirius since his progress was also impressive. The boys high fived, and went to work helping their partners.

Sirius was actually very helpful, and after finishing his transfiguration he gave it to Lily for reference. He explained how a bit part of transfiguration was visualizing the object you were trying to create, and changing it with your willpower. With his help, Lily was able to make her own needle-like object.

James was not as kind of an instructor, but still managed help Peter perform an adequate version of the spell. Satisfied that their duty was done, James and Sirius took turns poking each other with their needles, reasoning that whoever drew more blood clearly had the better needle.

After Transfiguration the first years had an hour break. Lily and Alice went down to the library to kill time. They sat down at a table to talk, which proved to be a terrible idea. Their cheerful voices drew Madam Pince from her office, and she shamed them for using her precious library for social purposes.

Since the girls had been tossed out of the library, they meandered to the Great Hall in no particular hurry. Halfway there, they heard sounds of a struggle and hurried ahead to find a group of Slytherins picking on a small boy. They taunted him, calling him Mudblood and knocking his books out of his hands.

Lily turned pale, and froze where she was. She remembered that word. These must be the jerks that James had told her about.

Alice was not one to stand by and let a student be picked on, so she strode up to the group and threatened to fetch a prefect if they didn't bugger off. Luckily they listened to her, and walked off after giving her a few glares. Lily rushed over to help gather the boy's things. The boy shoved everything back into his bag, and ran away from them, tears leaking from his eyes.

"Alice, that was so… brave," Lily said, wide-eyed.

"Believe me I was terrified," Alice assured her. "My family's been in Gryffindor for generations so I want to be the kind of person they can be proud of." Lily's heart sank. Another pureblood.

When they made it to the Great Hall, Lily chose a seat next to James. Sirius, who was sitting across from him, shot him a thumbs up. For most of the meal, Lily talked to Alice and Frank, but at one point she dropped her fork and gave James a meaningful poke. Catching her drift, James bent down to help Lily retrieve it.

"I need to talk to you."

"It wasn't me I promise!"

"What?"

"What?"

"Ugh can I just talk to you in private after class. I promise I'm not mad or anything."

"Uhh sure. Meet me outside the common room at 6. Bring your map."

By the time they were both sitting upright again, Sirius had grown suspicious. He shot James a look, but said nothing.

Afternoon classes were not nearly as entertaining as morning lessons had been. Defense against the Dark Arts was a lecture, and would be for at least the first month of school. The spells they would be learning in that class were more challenging, and could have dangerous effects if performed incorrectly.

History of Magic was even worse. The ghost teacher wasted no time on pleasantries, and began to drone on about the giant wars. He talked for the entire hour, never pausing to take a breath. When the hour was up hardly any students were fully awake. Exhausted from the boring lesson and their tiring first day of classes, the first years trudged back to the common room to rest before dinner.

Lily opted out of playing Gobstones with the other girls, mostly because she had no idea what it was, and didn't want to let on that she was a Muggle Born. As an excuse for not playing, she wrote a letter to her parents, describing the amazing school and her new friends. When it was close to six she visited her room and grabbed her map. She put it in her pocket, and made sure it wasn't visible.

"I'm going to go try to mail my letter. I'll see you guys at dinner," Lily said to the first year girls, and went to meet James.

"Lily" she heard her name whispered, as soon as she stepped outside the common room. She saw no one, and realized that Potter was using his magic cloak. James appeared for a second, before throwing the cloak over her, and pulling her down a passageway.

"Let's go somewhere private," he suggested, positive that her desire to speak with him meant that Lily had been so taken with his performance in Transfiguration, and wanted to be his girlfriend.

Lily pulled out her map, and thought about wanting to go to the Owlery, which the Potters had explained was where she needed to go to send letters home. She didn't see why the cloak was necessary, since the only people in the hallways were older kids who wouldn't have cared who they were or where they were going.

When they reached the Owlery, James did a quick check, and pulled the cloak off of them when he confirmed that the room was empty.

"So I need to ask you something," Lily started, twisting her fingers together.

"Yes," James replied. "I mean, sure what do you want?"

She turned away, starting to tie her letter to one of the school owl's legs with little success. "Could you…?"

"Um yeah." James walked over to her, not remembering a time when they'd ever been this civil to each other.

When the owl was ready to go, Lily told it the address, and was left alone with James Potter. Well except for the other hundred owls. Finally, she was done stalling, and blurted out her reason for meeting with him.

"I need you to tell me everything there is to know about being a wizard. I don't know anything about the games and I don't come from a long line of accomplished wizards and no one can know that I'm a Mudblood and—"

"Lily!" James cut her off. "Don't call yourself that. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being Muggle-born. The only ones who even care about that kind of stuff are those gits in Slytherin. I shouldn't have even said anything about it."

"Easy for you to say when you're a pureblood! And so is Alice, and Rebecca, and that guy who set the Charms classroom on fire."

"Listen, if your friends care even slightly that you weren't born into some dumb wizarding family then they aren't really friends at all. And Fergus is an idiot. He set a classroom on fire."

Lily was starting to feel better. Maybe she had over reacted before when she was panicking about being a Muggle-born.

"Well can you at least teach me how to play Gobstones?" she asked, determined to learn something tonight.

James laughed. "Gobstones is a game for when you have nothing better to do. How about I tell you about the greatest game ever invented instead."

"And that would be…?"

"Quidditch, of course."

As they walked to the Great Hall for dinner, James told Lily everything she needed to know about Quidditch. His enthusiasm for the sport made him forget his disappointment that she did not in fact want to be his girlfriend.

Later that night Lily confessed to the other girls that she had grown up as a Muggle, and didn't tell them before because she'd been embarrassed about it. Like James, they all assured her there was nothing to be embarrassed about, and offered tidbits of information as they were getting ready for bed. Lily fell asleep during Mary's retelling of Babity Rabity and the Cackling Stump. As she drifted off, she realized that she had forgotten to talk to James about the strange room they had visited before the feast, or her enchanted map.

A/N Please Review!


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